Recently, portable electronic appliances have been fabricated in small sizes with multi-functions, such as communication, photographing and sound replay functions realized in a module unit, and the size of each module has been significantly miniaturized. Specifically, portable electronic appliances, such as cell phones and PDAs, are equipped with a small Compact Camera Module (CCM) to provide photographing functions and such portable electronic appliances have been extensively used.
The camera module includes an image sensor such as a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) or a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor, and converts optical energy into electrical signals through the image sensor, thereby acquiring image data of a subject.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a camera module according to the related art. The camera module will be briefly described below.
Referring to FIG. 1, the camera module 10 includes a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) 12, a header connector 14, a housing 16 and a lens unit 18.
An image sensor (not shown) is connected to one end of the upper surface of the PCB 12 by wire, and the header connector 14 is mounted on the other end of the upper surface thereof through Surface Mount Technology (SMT). The header connector 14 is connected to the connector of a main PCB in a portable terminal so as to transmit various signals.
The housing 16 is coupled to one end of the upper surface of the PCB 12. The housing 16 seals the outer side of the image sensor (not shown). The lens unit 18 is coupled to the upper surface of the housing 16. The lens unit 18 includes a glass filter (not shown) and a lens 20, and can be screw-coupled to the housing 16.
In such a camera module 10, since the PCB 12 has an image sensor area and a header connector area, there is a limitation in reducing the size of the PCB 12. Therefore, reducing the size of the camera module 10 is difficult.
In addition, since the PCB 12 has a connector structure, work efficiency for the camera module 10 deteriorates.